Strong durable goods and farm product sales helped spur the biggest jump in wholesale sales since a 3.3 percent rise in March 2004. The overall sales increase in January came after a 0.5 percent drop in December, revised from a previously reported 0.7 percent decline.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.8 percent in January, while sales leapt 2.7 percent, the largest increase in nearly four years, the Commerce Department said on Monday.
Strong durable goods and farm product sales helped spur the biggest jump in wholesale sales since a 3.3 percent rise in March 2004. The overall sales increase in January came after a 0.5 percent drop in December, revised from a previously reported 0.7 percent decline.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected wholesale inventories to increase only 0.4 percent, after a 1.1 percent unrevised gain in December. Their value in January was $414.8 billion and sales stood at $387.7 billion.
U.S. stock prices were little changed in opening trade, while U.S. government debt prices rose on continuing speculation the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates aggressively.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Sales of durable goods increased 2.4 percent from December, and 5.1 percent from January 2007, the department said. Despite the increase in durable goods sales, inventories rose 0.6 percent.
Farm product sales, meanwhile, reflected steadily increasing food prices, jumping 16.1 percent over the month and increasing 73.3 percent from a year before.
The inventory to sales ratio, or how long it would take to sell stocks at the current pace, fell to 1.07 months' worth in January, matching the record low set in November. It was 1.09 months' in December.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Editing by Neil Stempleman)
